WO2013084585A1 - Transmission/reception-separated polarization-shared antenna - Google Patents

Abstract

The objective of the invention is to reduce coupling between transmission and reception while achieving sharing polarizations between transmission and reception bands. A transmission band patch antenna (3-T) and a reception band patch antenna (3-R), which are disposed with a given spacing therebetween, each comprise: an upper grounded conductor (9); a lower grounded conductor (19); feeding lines (15) disposed between the grounded conductors (9, 19); a feeding slot (13) formed in the upper grounded conductor (9); a patch (5) that is electromagnetically coupled to the feeding lines (15) through the feeding slot (13); and electromagnetic shields (23, 29) that are connected to the upper and lower grounded conductors (9, 19) in such a manner that the electromagnetic shields (23, 29) surround the feeding lines (15). The feeding lines (15) include mutually independent feeding conductors (15a, 15b) corresponding to respective polarizations.

Description

Transmit / receive split polarization antenna

The present invention relates to a transmission / reception split polarization antenna that is particularly suitable for use in mobile communication base stations.

In order to secure the power per bit that increases as the data transmission speed increases, it is effective to reduce the loss of the power feeding system (for example, see Non-Patent Document 1). As one of means for realizing a reduction in loss of the power feeding system, there is a configuration in which a transmission / reception front-end circuit and an antenna are integrated, and FIG. 20 shows an example of the configuration.

20, a diplexer 103 that separates transmission and reception bands is provided immediately below the antenna 101, and bandpass filters 105 and 107 that remove unnecessary frequency bands are provided after the diplexer 103. A low noise amplifier (LNA) 109 arranged at the subsequent stage of the bandpass filter 105 and a power amplifier (PA: Power Amplifier) 111 arranged at the subsequent stage of the bandpass filter 107 are respectively in the reception band and the transmission band. It is provided to increase the signal level.

According to the above configuration, the noise figure (NF) can be reduced in the reception band, and the required radiation power can be reduced in the transmission band. However, when applied to a frequency division duplex (FDD) system, the required amount of blocking for unnecessary frequency band signals is increased in order to separate transmission / reception band signals. The diplexer and the band pass filter must be used to meet the required value.

Therefore, in order to realize a reduction in size of the filter, transmission / reception separation antennas according to Patent Documents 1 to 3 to which a diplexer function is added have been proposed. This transmission / reception separation antenna reduces the mutual coupling between the transmission band antenna and the reception band antenna (hereinafter, referred to as transmission / reception query coupling), and realizes a reduction in the number of stages of filters arranged at the subsequent stage of the antenna.
The antenna according to Patent Document 1 reduces the coupling between transmission and reception in a configuration in which the polarization in the transmission band and the polarization in the reception band are orthogonal, and transmission and reception coupling of about −35 dB is obtained.
The antenna according to Patent Document 2 is provided with a parasitic cord for the purpose of blocking the band, thereby reducing the coupling between transmission and reception in the transmission band to about −30 dB regardless of the same polarization.
The antenna according to Patent Document 3 uses a circularly polarized antenna in the same turning direction as a transmission / reception band antenna, and rotates one element structure to reduce the coupling between transmission and reception to about −50 dB.

The antennas according to Patent Documents 1 and 2 have a basic structure as a transmission / reception separation patch antenna using a microstrip line. Here, consideration will be given to the coupling between transmission and reception when the transmission / reception separation patch antenna is shared in polarization.
FIG. 21 is a perspective view of a transmission / reception separation / polarization shared patch antenna having a feed line as a microstrip line, and FIG. 22 is an exploded view of the patch antenna.
The transmission / reception split polarization shared patch antenna includes a transmission band patch antenna 201-T and a reception band patch antenna 201-R. The transmission band patch antenna 201-T includes a patch 203, a cross-shaped power supply slot 205 positioned below the patch 203, and power supply lines 207a and 207b positioned below the power supply slot 205. ing. The reception band patch antenna 201-R has the same configuration. The feeding slots 205 of the patch antennas 201-T and 201-R are formed in a common ground conductor plate 209. A dielectric substrate 211 is disposed between the ground conductor plate 209 and the feeder lines 207a and 207b.
Note that this transmission / reception split polarization shared patch antenna does not have a structure for realizing band rejection included in the antenna according to Patent Document 2.

In this transmission / reception split polarization shared patch antenna, the patch 203 of the transmission band patch antenna 201-T is fed so as to share the polarization by electromagnetic coupling with the feed lines 207a and 207b via the corresponding feed slot 205. The The same applies to the patch 203 of the reception band patch antenna 201-R.
FIG. 23 shows the coupling characteristics between transmission and reception of the transmission / reception split polarization shared patch antenna. In this figure, f _R represents the center frequency of the reception band, f _T represents the center frequency of the transmission band, f ₀ represents the center frequency of the reception band lower limit frequency and the transmission band upper limit frequency, and f _R = 0.953f ₀ , f _T = 1.047f ₀ .

As is apparent from this coupling characteristic, according to this transmission / reception split polarization dual patch antenna, between orthogonal polarizations (between reception band vertical polarization and transmission band horizontal polarization, reception band horizontal polarization and transmission band vertical) The transmission / reception coupling between polarizations can be reduced to -40dB or less, but between the same polarizations (between the reception band vertical polarization and the transmission band vertical polarization, between the reception band horizontal polarization and the transmission band horizontal polarization). The worst value is -20 dB or more. As described above, in the transmission / reception split polarization shared patch antenna, the coupling between the same polarized waves becomes strong.

JP-A-5-41608 JP 2009-71795 A JP-A-5-175727 Keizo Nagaguchi, Ryo Yamaguchi, Keigo Tsuji, “Base Station / Terminal Antenna Technology for Realizing Next-Generation Mobile Communication Systems”, IEICE Transactions Vol. J85-B No.9 pp. 886-900 Sept 2008

In future mobile communications represented by LTE (Long Term Term Evolution), MIMO (Multi-Input Multi-Output) will be the main technology, but in order to apply to this, polarization is shared in both transmission and reception bands. It is necessary to reduce the coupling between transmission and reception while realizing the above. However, as described above, when the conventional transmission / reception separation patch antenna is shared with polarization, there arises a problem that coupling between transmission and reception between the same polarization is not reduced.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a transmission / reception split polarization antenna capable of reducing coupling between transmission and reception while realizing polarization sharing in both transmission and reception bands.

The transmission / reception split polarization antenna of the present invention has a transmission band patch antenna and a reception band patch antenna arranged at a predetermined interval. The transmission band patch antenna and the reception band patch antenna include an upper stage ground conductor, a lower stage ground conductor, a feed line disposed between the ground conductors, a feed slot formed in the upper stage ground conductor, A patch electromagnetically coupled to the power supply line through a power supply slot; and an electromagnetic shield connected to the upper and lower ground conductors in a form located around the power supply line, the power supply line comprising: It has an independent feeding conductor corresponding to each polarization. *

The electromagnetic shield is formed by, for example, a large number of through holes arranged at predetermined intervals around the feeder line in a form from the upper ground conductor to the lower ground conductor. The electromagnetic shield may be formed of a metal plate disposed around the feeder line in a form extending from the upper ground conductor to the lower ground conductor.

The arrangement interval of the patch antenna for the transmission band and the patch antenna for the reception band may be set to 0.5λ ₀ (λ ₀ is a wavelength having a frequency intermediate between the lower limit frequency of the reception band and the upper limit frequency of the transmission band). preferable. The power supply slot may be formed in a square shape or a cross shape.
Furthermore, by arranging the transmission / reception separated polarization dual-use antennas in multiple stages, it is possible to realize a transmission / reception separated polarization shared antenna having an array configuration.

According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce coupling between transmission and reception while realizing polarization sharing in both transmission and reception bands. As an example, the element interval between the patch antenna for the transmission band and the patch antenna for the reception band is set to a narrow interval of 0.4λ ₀ (λ ₀ is a wavelength having a frequency intermediate between the lower limit frequency of the reception band and the upper limit frequency of the transmission band). Even in such a case, it is possible to realize coupling between transmission and reception of −30 dB or less. Further, according to the present invention, the diplexer in the transmission / reception front end circuit can be omitted, and the subsequent band-pass filter can be downsized.

It is a perspective view which shows embodiment of the transmission-and-reception separation and polarization shared patch antenna which concerns on this invention. It is a top view of the antenna which concerns on embodiment. It is a disassembled perspective view of the patch antenna for transmission bands, and the patch antenna for reception bands. It is a top view which shows the planar structure of a patch, an upper stage ground conductor, a feeder, and a lower stage ground conductor, respectively. It is a top view which shows the other example of an electric power feeding slot. It is a perspective view which shows the arrangement | sequence aspect of a through hole. It is a perspective view which shows the metal plate used instead of the through hole. It is a graph which shows the return loss characteristic of the antenna which concerns on embodiment. It is a graph which shows the transmission / reception coupling characteristic of the antenna which concerns on embodiment. It is a graph which shows the xy surface directivity of the receiving band vertical polarization of the antenna which concerns on embodiment. It is a graph which shows the xy plane directivity of the receiving band horizontal polarization of the antenna which concerns on embodiment. It is a graph which shows xy plane directivity of the transmission band vertical polarization of the antenna which concerns on embodiment. It is a graph which shows the xy plane directivity of the transmission band horizontal polarization of the antenna which concerns on embodiment. (A) is a figure which shows the electric field strength distribution of the antenna which concerns on embodiment, (b) is a figure which shows electric field strength distribution in case there is no through hole. It is a perspective view which shows the transmission / reception separation polarization shared patch antenna of an array structure. It is a graph which shows the directivity of the receiving-band yz surface in the transmission / reception separation polarization shared patch antenna of an array structure. It is a graph which shows the yz surface directivity of a transmission band in the transmission / reception separation polarization shared patch antenna of an array structure. It is a graph which shows the yz surface directivity of a receiving band in the transmission / reception separation polarization shared patch antenna of the array structure which changed the element space | interval. It is a graph which shows the yz surface directivity of a transmission band in the transmission / reception separation polarization shared patch antenna of the array structure which changed the element space | interval. It is a block diagram which shows the structure which integrated the transmission / reception front end circuit and the antenna. It is a perspective view which shows the conventional transmission / reception separation polarization shared patch antenna. FIG. 10 is an exploded view of a conventional transmission / reception split polarization shared patch antenna. It is a graph which shows the coupling characteristic between transmission / reception of the conventional transmission / reception separation polarization shared patch antenna.

In the following description, an intermediate frequency and its wavelength between the lower limit frequency of the reception band and the upper limit frequency of the transmission band are f ₀ and λ ₀ , respectively, and the center frequency and the wavelength of the reception band are f _R and λ _R each _{f T} center frequency and its wavelength of, and _{λ T, f R = 0.953f 0} ( wavelength _{λ R = 1.049λ 0), f} T = 1.047f 0 ( wavelength λ _T = 0.955λ ₀₎ And

FIGS. 1 and 2 are a perspective view and a plan view, respectively, showing an embodiment of a patch antenna for transmitting and receiving demultiplexing polarization according to the present invention. In these figures, the z-axis direction is perpendicular to the ground, and the xy plane is a plane horizontal to the ground.
The transmission / reception separation antenna according to the present embodiment includes a transmission band patch antenna 3-T and a reception band patch antenna 3-R installed on the conductor substrate 1. Transmission band patch antenna 3-T and the patch antenna 3-R for reception band, their spacing d is arranged such that 0.5 [lambda ₀ or less, in the present embodiment this distance d is in 0.4Ramuda ₀ Is set.

The transmission band patch antenna 3-T and the reception band patch antenna 3-R include at least four layers made of metal plates as shown in an exploded perspective view in FIG.
The first layer (uppermost layer) is a square patch 5 which is an excitation element (antenna element). The patch 5 is formed at the center of the upper surface of the dielectric substrate 7. The second layer is the upper ground conductor 9. The upper ground conductor 9 is attached to the upper surface of the dielectric substrate 11, and a feeding slot 13 is formed at the center thereof. The third layer is a feeder line 15. The feed line 15 includes a horizontal polarization feed conductor 15 a and a vertical polarization feed conductor 15 b formed on the upper surface of the dielectric substrate 17, and a bridge conductor 15 c described later. The fourth layer (lowermost layer) is the lower ground conductor 19.

The lower ground conductor 19 is attached to the lower surface of the dielectric substrate 17, and a slot 21 is formed at the center thereof. The bridge conductor 15 c is formed inside the slot 21. The upper stage ground conductor 9, the dielectric substrate 11, the feed line 15, the dielectric substrate 17 and the lower stage ground conductor 19 constitute a so-called triplate feed line. In this embodiment, dielectric substrates 7, 11 and 17 having a relative dielectric constant ε _r of about 3.3 are used.

The patch 5, the upper ground conductor 9, the feeder 15 and the lower ground conductor 19 are each made of a metal foil such as a copper foil, and a method of forming a printed wiring pattern (a predetermined metal foil pattern on the dielectric surface by an etching process or the like). The patterning is performed using a method for forming a film. When the dielectric substrates 7, 11, and 17 are overlaid, the center points of the patch 5, the upper stage ground conductor 9, the feed line 15, and the lower stage ground conductor 19 are positioned on a common axis.

4A, 4B, 4C, and 4D show the planar structures of the patch 5, the upper stage ground conductor 9, the feeder line 15, and the lower stage ground conductor 19, respectively. Here, the value of the structural parameter when resonance is obtained in the reception band will be described. Patch 7 is formed to one side forms a square of approximately 0.25 [lambda _R, also feed slot 13 provided in the upper ground conductor 9, for example, formed as one side forms a square of approximately 0.1 [lambda] _R Is done. Structure of patch 5 and the feed slot 13 is determined in accordance with the resonance frequency band, the one side of patches 7 to 0.228Ramuda _R in this embodiment, set respectively one side of the feed slot 13 to 0.125Ramuda _R ing.
The power supply slot 13 in the present embodiment is formed in a square shape, but is not limited to this. For example, even when the cross-shaped power supply slot 27 shown in FIG. 5 is used, an equivalent function can be obtained.

As shown in FIG. 3, the upper ground conductor 9 and the lower ground conductor 19 are electrically short-circuited through through holes 23 that penetrate the dielectric substrates 11 and 17. Therefore, both the ground conductors 9 and 19 are at the same potential. As shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, the through holes 23 are arranged at intervals of 0.01 to 0.02λ _R on each side of a square area of about 0.25 to 0.35λ _R per side. . The central point of the rectangular area and the central point of the patch 5 have the same value in the xz coordinate (see FIG. 2).

Instead of the through hole 23, a metal plate 29 as shown in FIG. 7 may be used. These metal plates 29 have substantially the same height as the through holes 23 and are provided along each side of the square area. When the upper ground conductor 9 and the lower ground conductor 19 are short-circuited using the metal plate 29, for example, a slit that penetrates the metal plate 29 is provided in the upper ground conductor 9, the electric substrate 11, the electric substrate 17, and the lower step. The upper and lower edges of the metal plate 29 formed on the ground conductor 19 and penetrating through these slits are connected to the upper surface of the upper ground conductor 9 and the lower surface of the lower ground conductor 19 using means such as solder. To do.
The values of the structural parameters when resonance is obtained in the reception band are as described above. The value of the structural parameter when resonance is obtained in the transmission band is obtained by replacing the wavelength λ _R with the wavelength λ _T. The reception-band patch antenna 3-R and the transmission-band patch antenna 3-T shown in FIG. 1 operate only in the respective use frequency bands by setting the structure parameter values as described above.

By the way, in order to share polarized waves, it is necessary to separate the horizontally polarized feed conductor 15a and the vertically polarized feed conductor 15b. This is why the central portion of the conductor element 15b is cut out. Each end of the conductor element 15b facing the notch is connected to the bridge conductor 15c through a through hole 25 penetrating the dielectric substrate 17. Thus, the bridge conductor 15c and the through hole 25 bridge-connect the conductor element 15b divided by the notch while bypassing contact with the conductor element 15a. The bridge conductor 15 c may be provided in the power supply slot 13 of the upper ground conductor 9.

It is desirable that the Anna according to the present invention is manufactured by the multilayer substrate as described above in view of its configuration.
In the reception band patch antenna 3-R, one end of the feed conductor 15a and one end of the feed conductor 15b serve as feed points for horizontal polarization and vertical polarization, respectively. The same applies to the transmission band patch antenna 3-T. The transmission band patch antenna 3-T and the reception band patch antenna 3-R share the polarization by electromagnetic coupling between the patch 5 and the feed line 15 via the corresponding feed slot 13 respectively. Transmit operation and receive operation.

FIG. 8 shows a simulation result of the return loss of the antenna according to this embodiment. As is apparent from the return loss characteristics, according to the antenna according to the present embodiment, in the horizontal polarization band with the narrowest bandwidth, the ratio band where the return loss is −9.6 dB or less is about 1.1%. It becomes.

FIG. 9 shows coupling characteristics between transmission and reception in the antenna according to the present embodiment. As is apparent from this coupling characteristic between transmission and reception, the coupling value becomes high in the case of the same polarization in both transmission and reception bands. However, as is apparent from the fact that the worst value is −30 dB in the reception band of horizontally polarized waves, Overall, it has good characteristics. The coupling between transmission and reception between orthogonal polarizations shows a good value of −60 dB or less in both transmission and reception bands.
Thus, according to the antenna according to the present embodiment, it is possible to reduce the coupling between transmission and reception to −30 dB or less while realizing polarization sharing in both transmission and reception bands. This is because the through hole 23 shown in FIG. 6 or the metal plate 29 shown in FIG. 7 has a function as an electromagnetic shield that suppresses coupling between transmission and reception.

10 shows the xy plane directivity of the reception band vertical polarization of the antenna according to this embodiment, FIG. 11 shows the xy plane directivity of the reception band horizontal polarization of the antenna, and FIG. 12 shows the transmission band vertical polarization of the antenna according to this embodiment. FIG. 13 shows the xy plane directivity of the transmission band horizontal polarization of the antenna. As is clear from these figures, according to the antenna according to the present embodiment, good directivity with a half width of about 80 ° can be obtained regardless of the transmission / reception band and the type of polarization.

FIG. 14 (a) shows the electric field strength distribution when the antenna according to this embodiment is excited in the reception band horizontally polarized wave. FIG. 14B shows the electric field strength distribution in the antenna of the comparative example having no through hole 23. According to the antenna according to the present embodiment including the through hole 23, the amount of electric field that wraps around from the excited patch 5 to the non-excited patch 5 is effectively reduced by the electromagnetic shielding action of the through hole 23. That is, the amount of coupling between the reception band patch antenna 3-R and the transmission band patch antenna 3-T is reduced.

15 shows a transmission / reception split polarization shared patch antenna having an array configuration in which the transmission / reception split polarization shared patch antenna shown in FIG. In this antenna, a transmission band patch antenna 3-T and a reception band patch antenna 3-R are alternately arranged. The interval between adjacent transmission band patch antennas 3-T and the interval between adjacent reception band patch antennas 3-R is set to 2d, which is twice the element interval (patch 5 interval) d shown in FIG. Is done.

16 and 17, receive band and transmission band of the transmission and reception separating dual-polarized patch antenna array configuration element spacing d is arranged four stages receive separated polarized patch antennas shown in FIG. 1 is a 0.4Ramuda ₀ The yz plane directivities in FIG. Further, FIGS. 18 and 19 respectively show the yz plane directivity in the receiving band and the transmission band of the case of the 0.5 [lambda ₀ element spacing d as a comparative example.
These directivities are obtained when the feed points are excited with the same phase and the same amplitude. In FIG. 16 to FIG. 19, the solid line and the broken line indicate the directivities for the vertical polarization and the horizontal polarization, respectively.
16, 17 and 18, as is clear from comparison with FIG. 19, when the element spacing d is 0.4Ramuda _0, the maximum sidelobe level in the test range is about 13 dB, d = 0 grating lobe can be suppressed than in the case of .5λ _0.
In reception separating polarized patch antennas of the array configuration according to the present invention, in order to reduce the amount of binding while suppressing grating lobes, and to set the element spacing d to 0.5 [lambda ₀ or less.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Metal conductor 3-T Patch antenna for transmission bands 3-R Patch antenna for reception bands 5 Patch 7 Dielectric substrate 9 Upper ground conductor 11 Dielectric substrate 13 Feed slot 15 Feed line 15a Horizontal polarization feed conductor 15b Vertical polarization Power supply conductor 15c Bridge conductor 17 Dielectric substrate 19 Lower ground conductor 21 Slot 23, 25 Through hole 27 Power supply slot 29 Metal plate

Claims (6)

A transmission band patch antenna and a reception band patch antenna arranged at a predetermined interval, the transmission band patch antenna and the reception band patch antenna,
An upper ground conductor;
A lower ground conductor,
A feeder line disposed between the ground conductors,
A feeding slot formed in the upper ground conductor;
A patch that is electromagnetically coupled to the feed line through the feed slot;
An electromagnetic shield connected to the upper ground conductor and the lower ground conductor in a form located around the feeder line, and
The transmission / reception split polarization antenna is characterized in that the feed line has an independent feed conductor corresponding to each polarization. 2. The electromagnetic shield according to claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic shield is formed by a plurality of through holes arranged at predetermined intervals around the feeder line in a form from the upper ground conductor to the lower ground conductor. Transmit / receive split polarization antenna. 2. The transmission / reception split polarization antenna according to claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic shield is formed by a metal plate disposed around the feeder line in a form extending from the upper ground conductor to the lower ground conductor. . The arrangement interval of the patch antenna for the transmission band and the patch antenna for the reception band is set to 0.5λ ₀ (λ ₀ is a wavelength at a frequency intermediate between the lower limit frequency of the reception band and the upper limit frequency of the transmission band). The transmission / reception split polarization antenna according to claim 1. The transmission / reception split polarization antenna according to claim 1, wherein the shape of the feeding slot is a square or a cross. An antenna for transmitting and receiving demultiplexing polarized waves having an array configuration, wherein the antennas for transmitting and receiving demultiplexing polarization according to claim 1 are arranged in multiple stages.

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